Devon Toews’ late goal lifts Avalanche to win over Coyotes

There were plenty of weird, confounding moments Sunday afternoon at Ball Arena, but the Colorado Avalanche’s top guys found one sequence of brilliance when the club desperately needed it.

Devon Toews scored with 6:43 remaining on a shot set up by Nathan MacKinnon’s will and Jonathan Drouin’s skill, and the Avs prevailed with a 4-3 victory against the Arizona Coyotes.

This contest was filled with delays, penalties and coach’s challenges. The Avs controlled play for long stretches, but couldn’t separate from the pesky Coyotes. Colorado won for just the second time in seven tries since the All-Star break, and this was an important one after a disappointing road trip.

MacKinnon went behind the Coyotes net and was met by defenseman J.J. Moser, but the Avs superstar went through the attempted check and held onto the puck. He sent it into the slot for Drouin, whose deft one-touch play set up Toews for a blast from the left point.

The Avs grabbed an early lead when Miles Wood set up Ross Colton for his 12th goal of the season 4:10 into the first, but penalty trouble helped the Coyotes grab the lead. Mathew Dumba scored on the rebound of a Alex Kerfoot shot, then Lawson Crouse made it 2-1 with a power-play tally.

Colorado took three penalties in the period, including two that Dumba drew on Mikko Rantanen. Arizona capitalized on the second one. It was the fifth power-play goal the Avs have allowed in the past five games.

The Avalanche had lots of chances to score a power-play goal of its own in the second period. Colorado had eight minutes with the extra man, including a double-minor, and racked up 13 shots on net without scoring.

The second period was emblematic of the Avs’ recent struggles. They dominated the puck, racked up 21 shots on net and only yielded 0.18 expected goals. And yet it was still a 3-3 game after 40 minutes because the Coyotes converted one of the few chances they had.

Jack Johnson had tied the game at 2-2 with a nifty spin and foray towards the net from the right point early in the period. Shortly Colorado botched a 3-on-2 while shorthanded, Arizona countered with a 4-on-2 just as a penalty on Nathan MacKinnon expired and Logan Cooley scored from between the circles.

MacKinnon got the Avs level for a second time with a goal 21 seconds later. Bowen Bryam set him up at the right post, but it took MacKinnon four whacks at the puck before it crossed the goal line. Arizona goalie Karel Vejmelka tried to pull it back into play, but MacKinnon helped the official nearby with a “good goal” signal of his own.

It was MacKinnon’s 33rd goal of the season, and he reached 90 points in his 56th game. That’s the fastest an Avalanche player has reached 90 points, and the fastest in franchise history since Peter Stastny had 90 in 56 in 1987-88 for the Quebec Nordiques.

Both teams had a goal taken off the board by a coach’s challenge in the third period. Kerfoot was offsides when got behind the Avs defense, and Rantanen was well offsides before a Jonathan Drouin goal that came on the first shift after the Coyotes’ goal was wiped out.

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